Daily Motivation 7-27-10

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Today's Gift

Time spent attempting to change others affords little time for personal change. --Georgette Vickstrom

We must be willing to change or we wouldn't be reading these words right now. However, being willing to change is often easier than doing it. One of the biggest changes most of us need to make is learning to let others be who they are, regardless of who we want them to be. Most of us think our lives would be far smoother and more productive if only other people lived up to our standards. How wrong we are!

It we could change others as we wish, we would live far less enlightened lives. In fact, we discover opportunities for personal development in our interactions with the men and women who frustrate us so. The irony is that we wish they'd change, but if they did, we wouldn't experience the growth we deserve.

I will enhance my growth today by letting others be who they are and working on myself.

You are reading from the book:

A Woman's Spirit by Karen Casey

********************************

Twenty-Four Hours a Day

Keep It Simple

To enjoy freedom, we have to con troll ourselves. Virginia Woolf

Freedom is a funny thing, in a way, it makes life harder. We are free to do what we want but every choice makes a difference in our lives. Some choices make us happy and some bring trouble. We can make good choices. We can control our actions. We can start by having control in little ways: follow the law, pay the rent, and make the bed every day. These choices put order in our lives. Eat right, exercise, and get enough sleep. These choices make us strong enough to live each day to the fullest. These kinds of choices set us free.

Prayer for the day: Higher Power, I was drinking and drugging. I couldn't enjoy my freedom. I had no control over the little things in my life. Help me stay sober today.

Action for the day: Today, I'll be grateful for having some control. I will list five way I am more free because I can control my actions.

**********************

One Day At A Time

Demands
If we examine every disturbance we have, great or small,
we will find at the root of it some unhealthy dependency
and its consequent unhealthy demand.
Let us, with our Higher Power's help, continually surrender these hobbling demands.
Then we can be set free to live and love; we may then be able to
Twelfth Step ourselves and others into emotional sobriety.
~ The Language of the Heart, p. 238

Thought to Ponder . . .
I have been given a quiet place in bright sunshine.

AA-related 'Alconym' . . .
H J F = Happy, Joyous, Free.

*********************
Daily Motivation

Beyond you

Your thoughts, your words and actions may seem to begin and end in close proximity to you. Yet in truth they go far beyond you.

You cannot possibly know the full extent of your influence. So it's best to assume that anything you do affects everything that is.

The more positively you think and speak and act, the more positive your whole world becomes.

Put great care and value into what you do, and that value grows far more valuable as it spreads out beyond you.

You are connected to others in some ways you know about, and in many other ways you don't realize.

Whatever you offer to others, whether it is positive or negative, you'll eventually receive in even greater measure in your own life.

What seems to be beyond you is not really separated from you. You are immersed in all that is, and what you do resonates throughout.

Live each moment true to your highest values. And you'll share those values with your whole world.

-- Ralph Marston